Duana Names: Cue Stills, Nash, & Young…

Hi Duana,
I wondered your thoughts on the boy name Crosby? The other top contenders are Bennett or Cooper. There is a whole bunch of criteria and other factors going into our decision, but I don't want to bore you with those so will just ask the basic question! One detail is that our daughter is named Amelia... Do they work together?

Thx!

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If you didn’t know that this answer was going to involve Parenthood then you haven’t been paying attention. Lainey partly indulges my love for the show because of FNL loyalty but there are some truly great characters and moments that you might be missing out on.

To our point, though, there’s a great scene in the pilot: it’s a spoiler, but it’s the pilot, so get over it. Crosby is telling his parents all about the son he didn’t know he had, and they are adorable and excited and say “what’s his name?”

“Jabbar.”

“What kind of name is Jabbar?” asks the crusty, blowhard father (with a heart of gold).

“What kind of a name is Zeek?” Crosby returns, and yes, that’s how it’s spelled.

It shouldn’t have been what sold me on the series, but it kind of was. It made Crosby the kind of character who’s imperfect, but nonetheless aware of the world around him, and I think this is reflected in his name, too. It fits in but stands out, not only with his more traditionally-named siblings, but in the world at large.

I totally buy Crosby for a kid – it has that hard to find but awesome-when-you-hit-it quality: good for a child and an adult. Crosby will grow up and be a guitarist or a lawyer, a human-rights advocate or the owner of an organic vegetable grocery empire, and the name will suit him equally well.

The sibling question is an interesting one. Whenever people hear how popular Amelia is, they’re surprised – it doesn’t necessarily seem that way, especially for a name that was straight-up unusual when we were growing up. I can see how you’d think it might be like naming your children Ashley and Aloysius, but in this case I actually think Crosby "tamps down" Amelia a little, making it one step closer to unusual rather than the other way around.

While Bennett and Cooper are both nice options that have much the same profile in terms of being boys’ and mens’ names, they are a little more common – Cooper in particular – and Bennett will, of course, become Ben (leading many to assume he’s Benjamin). If these are reasons enough to leave them off, it looks like Crosby is your man.

Be aware, though, because while I don’t get requests about this name often at all, it doesn’t exactly lend itself to a nickname – so if Crosby ever meets another, they’ll be Cros & Cros – or learn to love their last initials.